The Pamela Mission: A Space Experiment to measure energetic Matter and Antimatter from Space

by Wolfgang Menn (Universität Siegen)

Tuesday 2 Jun 2009, 17:15 → 18:15 Europe/Berlin

Max-Planck-Institut für Physik, Auditorium

The Pamela Experiment has been in orbit since June 2006 and we have been receiving continuous scientific data since that time. The instrument is designed to measure the energetic cosmic ray particles and antiparticles from space over a large energy regime from 100 MeV to almost 1 TeV. The main experimental components of the instrument are: A magnetic spectrometer, with a permanent magnet, a time of flight system and an imaging calorimeter. These detectors in combination provide a high level of particle identification. The instrument precisely measures the charge, the charge sign and the energy of the incoming particles.The long observation time of currently almost 3 years provides an unprecedented statistical precision. Pamela not only measures the antiprotons and positrons in an unexplored energy regime, the Pamela measurements in general will improve the cosmic ray observation in many aspects. This applies to the galactic cosmic rays as well as to the solar particles. The talk will shortly explain the instrument and will then focus on first results with a specific emphasis on the recently published positron and antiproton data.